Electronic devices generate heat during operation. High performance integrated circuits such as computer processors containing nanometer scaled structures are among the electronic devices that are most sensitive to heat. Subject to the available cooling power, these components and devices are operated within certain boundaries of operational parameters such as voltage, clocking frequency, and idle time, which are known as the thermal envelope of the electronic device.
Integrated circuits are commonly manufactured on thin, flat, semiconductor dice mounted in a package. Heat generated in the die is transported through the package into, for example, ambient air or a liquid coolant. In practice, a semiconductor die is not perfectly flat, but has a slightly curved or warped (e.g., convex) surface.
Semiconductor dice are often manufactured with standardized sizes, for example, 20×20 mm. It is expected that dice for future high-end applications such as servers in a data center will be made with larger dimensions than are usual today. Another recent development is the use of packages comprising vertically stacked chips. Both developments increase the vertical amplitude of a non-uniform cooling surface of an electronic device.